The game report has been waiting from before Christmas to be written up and covers the second game being fought out in turn 4 of the Ancients campaign. The battle of Caieta, 211 BC, takes place in Southern Italy and has a force lead by Hannibal trying to reverse the recent trend of Roman victories.
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| The Roman general's view. |
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| Elephants prepare to advance. |
Each side has 7 units which are randomly selected using dice from 6 options on a table. This time Carthage has some elephants which they have been missing in the last few games, and are always a joy to see as miniatures on the tabletop.
Chance cards are being used through out the campaign and are adjusted when generals are present or there are additional forces in the region. In this case both armies gain a rally card (replacing a no effect card) for having a second army present in the Southern Italy region. While the Carthaginians will also benefit from an additional initiative chance card because of the presence of Hannibal.
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| The campaign map for game 2 in turn 4. |
In the last few games Rome has been successful using the tactics of pushing forward their heavy infantry as quickly as possible and getting to grips with Carthaginian centre troops. In this game the Carthaginian elephants in the centre will frustrate the same tactics.
On to the game...
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| The battle opened with Carthage's pushing forward with their elephants and Gauls in the centre, and on their right flank cavalry moved forward. |
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In previous games the Romans had been particularly successful pushing forward with their heavy infantry in the centre, but with elephants heading their way they tried to shift the attack to the right while holding off the elephants.
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| The game at the mid-point with Roman heavy infantry moving forward to attack while holding off the elephants as Carthaginian cavalry close in on their flank. |
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| The game is in the balance as the elephants are eliminated and the final line of Carthaginians engage the advancing Romans while flanking harass the Roman centre. |
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| The Roman infantry rush forward hoping to break the Carthaginian centre. |
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| Cartage's centre holds and with flank units closing in Rome is defeated. |
The Carthaginians return to their winning ways under the command of Hannibal. The campaign will move into turn 5 and will see the arrival of Scipio the Younger.
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| The campaign position after the second game and Carthage's victory. |
Brilliant!, a post worth waiting for. Your elephants look terrific too.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Paul.
It is always a joy to get the elephants on the tabletop. Thanks.
DeleteCarthage is back on the winning track! Fine looking game, Peter. You get a lot of interesting action out of games with a handful of units. With elephants, I either fail miserably when leading them or they carry the day. Rarely do I see a middle ground.
ReplyDeleteA good win for Carthage. It will be interesting in the campaign to see if they have lost their opportunity to crush Rome. With the attritional nature of the hits in the rules elephants always get a reasonable showing in the game, unless light infantry frustrate them and they get flanked.
DeleteGreat to see the elephants back, no doubt Hannibal put his foot down and insisted on having them. A classic Punic battle with the Roman steamroller having to try and break through before they get engulfed. It will be interesting to see what impact Scipio has.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to the next few games as Scipio enters the campaign. Having a leader provides an additional initiative chance card which can prove very useful if drawn at key times in the game.
DeleteElephants are always a spectacle - I was wanting them to stay in the game :-)
ReplyDeleteThey are always a focus point of the army when deployed. It is unfortunate they are always in the first attack and never seem to survive as a unit until game's end.
DeleteSound like my SU 152’s in my east front games :-)
DeleteThey are big beasts too.
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